FEATURE

You Could Be Eating Cancer

Every Day

When was the last time you heard about somebody visiting a doctor for an ordinary ailment only to find out that they had cancer of some sort...? Also, you will agree that in many such cases the sufferer is someone who does not smoke or drink, and has lived a relatively active life. So then, what is it that is helping this disease to spread? What makes us all so vulnerable? From where are these carcinogens entering our body? There are many such questions that have been answered through credible agencies. However, the full information on such findings does not reach us often. The reasons are multiple: commercial interests of business conglomerates, priorities of governments, ignorance among consumers…

The number of cancer cases worldwide is expected to increase to 75 per cent by 2030, and most of these cases will come from Asia Pacific. According to International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), a World Health Organization entity, India had 1.8 million people living with cancer (within five years of diagnosis) in 2012. During that year, about a million new cases were recorded, while about 683,000 deaths due to cancer were registered.